Espritpatch

Another UFO bites the dust! I have got these blocks out a few times in the last few years thanks to the APQ UFO challenge ,  but I never got very far with them.... This pile of granny square blocks came from a number of bees I was participating to in 2013 and 2014. I even wrote a  tutorial  for the block at some point!.... I know, this is a long time ago... but  better late than never, right? Now as with all swaps/bees, it is hard to get great consistency and while squaring the blocks, I realised that they would not all end up the exact same size if I was to keep all the points... so the solution I found for it was to sash the blocks. So I raided my stash for a solid fabric that would work with all the blocks.  I picked the lilac that I had recently bought for the Harry Potter quilt along as I had stashed meters of it and it was somehow a more neutral colour for the blocks. I like how it worked with my blocks. I cut lengths of sashing and added the st...

This month, I finished (at the last minute) nothing new here, my blocks for the [4x5] Modern Quilt Bee I picked the Dutchman's puzzle block to make for my fellow bee: And I also sent out 2 Granny Square blocks to Suzy last week, catching up from November. I love the colour combo she has chosen, her blocks look so different but I only took a picture of one of them! Celine

Yes my usual activity these days, catching up with my bee blocks. In between my broken herringbone blocks last week, I also finished my + and x blocks for Carol and I finsished a batch of Granny Square blocks for Michelle for Rachael for Jodie A few more to finish and I will have caught up finally! Linking to Whoop Whoop Friday Celine

I spent most of the day cleaning/tidying/de-cluterring and not as much time sewing as I was hoping. Anyway I did manage to finish one set of bee blocks for Granny Bee Squares . My second block for Julianne is finished and the set is packaged ready to go - late but ready to go anyway Celine

I know there are a number of tutorials online to make these blocks and I have so far used 2. One by Katy which uses 2.5' strips of fabric, which is perfect to make several of the same block. And another one by Blue Elephant Stitches which uses 2.5' squares which is perfect if you want to cut 25 squares different or not. I have come to use a method mixing both tutorials to make one block using a different fabric for each ring and I thought some of you might be interested in using the same method.

Ok so I did very little sewing this week-end but at least I tried to catch up with my bee blocks since I am in so many bees! This month see the start of a new year for the  Bee Europa   it is now the fourth round and my third time. I am ashamed to say that none of my previous 2 sets of blocks have made it to a finish quilt yet. My first year block (Maisy) are made into a flimsy ready to be quilted, my second year of blocks are also made into a flimsy but I need a few more blocks to make my top bigger. So I started with Miriam's blocks after I was finally able to locate her envelope of fabric that I had temporarily lost in my sewing room. When I opened her package and saw that she wanted tumbling blocks, I almost put it away for later because I HATE Y-seams but Muriel pointing us to a great youtube tutorial by Kaye West , which works very well making Y-seams a breeze. So in the end, the 5 tumbling blocks got finished quickly. Next month is my turn to be queen bee, so of ...

More bee blocks for me recently, I seem to mainly work on bee blocks at the moment! I suppose one could wonder whether I am in too many bees or whether I am only able to do something when I have a deadline. I think there is probably a mix of both! Anyway, I completed 2 more blocks for the Granny Block Bee . This time it was for Christina who had posted a lovely collage of vintage sheets. I didn't have any sheets but looking at her picture, it reminded me of the Liberty prints so I offered to do her blocks in Liberty fabric, which she seemed really please about. So I went into my stash on "vintage" Liberty (I am saying vintage because these are fabrics I have had for years, not the latest Bloomsbury or Stile release) and cut a few squares for her blocks. The centre square in this block is from a piece of fabric my Mum bought when she first took me to London nearly 30 years ago to make me a shirt. We have hold onto the scraps very carefully over the years! Linking...

I showed you the envelopes yesterday, now a pick inside! On Saturday night I used my Sizzix quite a lot to cut squares for my granny bee blocks. I started cutting my squares with my rotary cutter until I remember that I bought the 2.5' square die for my Big Shot in Birmingham after talking with Katy from I'm a Ginger Monkey . She recommended it highly saying she uses hers all the time and I must say until now, I had hardly thought about using it. Well granny square blocks are an ideal block for the die since they are made of 25 x 2.5' squares. And I must admit that using the Sizzix die did speed up my cutting considerably and the waste (I hate wasting fabric) was very minimal. I will definitely start using it more! So I made 2 blocks for Liz using a printed ring and 2 coordinating solids. She wanted bright blocks so I hope she likes my choice of fabric Did you recognise the printed fabric? It came from the rainbow Bento block I made and didn't like because i...